


Back on Duty

by blynninja



Category: Arrow (TV 2012)
Genre: AU, Other, Spoilers, a little angsty, idk what to tag this
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-22
Updated: 2016-02-22
Packaged: 2018-05-22 16:58:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 892
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6087480
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/blynninja/pseuds/blynninja
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After learning who William is and why Oliver didn't tell her about him, Felicity takes some time to think.<br/>Idk titles.<br/>Some spoilers.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Back on Duty

**Author's Note:**

> This is a take on a gifset promo I saw in which Felicity asks "Who is William?" I wanted a slightly positive take on how she'll react, because I don't want an Olicity breakup, guys. I don't. I know I have no control over it, but it freaks me out, so I wrote an in-between little introspective thing on how I feel Felicity should feel, at least partially.

“Who’s William?”

Oliver looked pained as he answered, “He’s my son.”

Felicity could only blink at him, attempting to process that one simple sentence.

“William is my son, and Damien Darhk has him, Felicity. I need to get him back.”

Oliver’s words barely registered as her own to her mother filled her head: _“Maybe he’s doing it to protect you. Because he loves you. And you need to return that love with a little bit of trust.”_

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

Oliver’s face twisted with impatience and what she was pretty sure was regret as he replied, “I didn’t tell _anyone_ , Felicity. Only a couple of people knew, and they discovered it themselves.”

“Why were you keeping it a secret?”

She was barely even whispering now, but the words made it out.

“It was the price I paid to be able to see him, to be in his life. Felicity, I _wanted_ to tell you. I wanted to tell _all of you_. But if I had, William’s mother would never have let me get to know him.”

Oliver looked near tears now, and Felicity found herself blinking back tears as well.

“You didn’t trust us to keep your secret?”

Oliver sighed heavily, apparently understanding the irony.

“I know. I just… I wanted to prove to Samantha that I’m not the same guy I was when we were together. I wanted to show her that I could be trusted. She won’t even let me tell William that I’m his father yet. She doesn’t trust me enough to tell him the whole truth.”

Felicity could only watch as Oliver appeared to war within himself for a moment, finally admitting quietly, “And the first time we found out about William, you went behind my back to get the truth and it ripped us apart. I didn’t want that to happen again.”

“What do you mean, the first time?” Felicity breathed, confused.

“When we were in Central City, Barry time traveled,” Oliver said quietly. “In the first timeline, he knew about William and you made him give you the info because you thought I didn’t trust you. When you confronted me about it, I tried to explain, but you refused to listen, and you broke up with me. Then our fight with Savage went wrong because my head wasn’t in it, and Barry ended up time traveling and I decided not to tell any of you about William to prevent something like that from happening again.”

Tears were falling unchecked now, and Felicity didn’t bother wiping them away.

“So you were trying to keep us all safe by keeping William a secret?”

Oliver nodded silently, his face twisted in fear. “I guess it didn’t work so well this time, either. Malcolm found out, and apparently he told Darhk to get back at me for what I did to him. I have to save my son, Felicity. I have to.”

And without waiting for her reply, Oliver turned and headed for the lair.

She sat quietly for a time, trying to process everything that had been thrown at her in the last several minutes.

On the one hand, Oliver had kept a secret, even after they had agreed to not keep secrets anymore.

That hurt, that he didn’t trust her enough to tell her. 

_I would have totally kept that secret! I keep all his other secrets, don’t I?? ___

 _ _But on the other hand, she knew the struggle of growing up without a father figure, and deep down she knew that William deserved that.__

 _ _

Oliver deserved, now more than ever, to get to know his child, and to be a good example for him.

But the secrets!!

He had known for _months _and not told anyone.__

 _ _And yet somehow Malcolm Merlyn had figured it out, so what was to say that someone else hadn’t discovered it as well?__

 _ _

And now that Darhk had William, there was a very real possibility that they would kill the boy to provoke Oliver, and that wouldn’t go over well.

Keeping William a secret had probably been in his best interest, but then again, if they’d known, they could have helped keep him safe!

They could have assumed that Darhk might go after William to get to Oliver, and devised a plan to keep the boy and his mother safe.

And don’t even start on the idea that Barry could time travel!

She was choosing not to think about that one too hard, because that was a majorly weird idea.

The truth still remained: Oliver had a child, and he’d kept it a secret until today.

The reasoning behind the secret didn’t really matter right now; what mattered was the fact that his son was missing, and they needed to find him for his own safety.

She could try to ignore the fact that he was Oliver’s son all she wanted, but Felicity knew that made it more difficult on Oliver, and he’d probably blame himself and become reckless in the field.

Right now, he needed her and the rest of the team to keep him in check as he hunted Darhk.

They could talk everything out later.

For the moment, she needed to be on Overwatch duty.

And with that realization, Felicity wheeled her way toward the elevator, determined to help find Oliver’s son before Darhk could hurt anyone else.

__

__

**Author's Note:**

> Edit after 4x15: Okay, so they're in a parking garage, not near the Lair. Whatever. I don't feel like going back to change that at the moment.


End file.
